Kamikaze statue lures tourists

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Mabalacat, Philippines: The statue of a kamikaze pilot gazing
towards the horizon, evocative of duty, sacrifice and death, is
not, surprisingly, sited on the Japanese coast, gazing at the
Pacific where the suicide attackers met their end.

Instead it stands at Mabalacat airfield in the Philippines, from
where the first kamikazes took off, in an attempt to draw Japanese
tourists to a land where more than a million people died under
wartime occupation. Tino Arceo, 69, its caretaker, was a child
during the occupation. "As far as I'm concerned this is just a
job," he said. "I'm working to earn money to make a living."

Most visitors in the months since the statue was unveiled have
been Japanese. Mr Arceo described them as "proud and happy", but
one Filipino wrote: "This memorial is an outrage and insults the
memory of Filipino veterans … It is revolting."

A panel on the statue describes Yukio Seki, the leader of the
first kamikaze raid in October 1944, as "the world's first official
human bomb".